Even more work done.

I've managed to get some more paint on the offside A-post and the nearside D-post.

I can't do any more until I can get some more Russett paint and the local Halfords is out of stock (I must've cleared them out of Russett!). I've managed to get some of the white paint off the nearside rear door.

The car wasn't running quite right so I swapped the carburettors. It was idling better but was still the same. I swapped the carbs twice more. The car was changing up late so checked the fluid level in the autobox and it needed topping up. During the last carb swap I adjusted the kickdown cable and it has improved things. Next, the alternator decided to stop working. New bushes and a clean-up of the connections to the rectifier seems to have fixed it.

I've finally banished the alloy wheels which are forever losing air. Somebody was offering a set of steel wheels for free in the Merseyside area so I snapped them up. They turned out to be SE wheels which wasn't what I was after but they were too good to pass up. I'm that desperate to stop constantly pumping up the tyres every couple of days. Dragging out the compressor is becoming a pain.

Only one of them needed the tyre replacing. I put the best 3 on the car and my spare wheel which is the correct type has gone on the car.

You can see the difference between the normal Dolomite wheel on the front and the SE wheel (similar to the Spitfire & GT6) on the rear. I know somebody who has a set of the correct wheels so I can do a swap because they're on one of his cars and doing the swap keeps his car rolling and I get exactly what I want. I also have a set of Sprint carburettors which I collected for him. He'd bought them on ebay and the seller was local to me so I offered to pick them up. The tyres look like they're holding pressure so I can live with the SE wheels for now.

More work done.

More work done.


I had a plastic tray underneath the battery. When the car went into the garage for the work doing the tray was taken out and not put back when the new battery was fitted. This gave me an opportunity to clean it up before putting it back on. I also painted the battery clamp with a coat of etch primer and a topcoat of gloss black. It has smartened it up.

The next part of the car to get painted was the driver's door and the offside sill.

I also painted the D post in satin black to tidy it up and protect the primer. The vinyl will be glued on at a later stage.

I ended up swapping the carburettors. Once they'd been fitted, adjusted and balanced the engine was idling a lot better than before. I've attached the airbox support bracket and the carbs don't sag any more. I will still be fitting sold carb mounts but I won't need them anytime soon.

More miles clocked up, a carburettor problem and some paint.

I've clocked up some more trouble-free miles. I've done 3 club meetings and a show. The car handles like it should and there's no skittishness at the front which is testament to the garage which did the work (CDK Motors). I'm having a problem with an erratic idle. Part of the problem is due to the cracked carb mounts which I want to replace with solid ones which are available from the Triumph Dolomite Club. I've dug out my spare set of carburettors out of the loft and I'm considering fitting them. I'd like to replace the HT leads as well because I can't remember the last time I did it.


Moving on to the paint, I bought a 300ml aerosol of Russett from my local Halfords and I have now got the offside rear door painted.


Before

After

It is definitely an improvement and it will do until I can get a proper respray. There are a few bodywork issues that need to be dealt with before I can consider a respray.

A decision on the paint.

This is what the Dolomite currently looks like. It really needs a proper respray but there are a few bodywork issues such as the dent in the offside rear wing which needs the filler taking out (a replacement panel is only available secondhand from a scrap car) and the dent pulling out. I don't want to leave it like it is so I'll get a few rattle cans which should tidy it up a bit until I can get it sorted out properly. I went out to Bramley for the local TDC area meeting (I'm the Area Organiser) on Tuesday and the car didn't put a foot wrong. Tomorrow I'll be going a bit further afield to the local Club Triumph meeting. I was absolutely loath to go any great distance the way the car was before I had the subframe mounts repaired and this will be stretching the car a bit more. There's the TDCIR on Sunday so it will be good to get some miles clocked up before then.